CarTrade raises $145 million from Singapore’s Temasek Holdings

CarTrade has raised funds worth $145 million i.e., Rs. 950 crore. This is the second biggest investment in an Indian startup by a foreign investment firm. Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and CarTrade’s existing investor Warburg Pincus made the investment.

The company plans to use the funds in the acquisition of its rival CarWale – a deal worth $100 million. It will use the remaining money for product expansion.

The value after this funding round has not been determined yet, but earlier the company was pegged at $100 million.

Apart from this, Quikr raised $150 million in 2015. CarTrade is first in its field to have raised such a huge amount.

Vinay Sanghi, CEO of CarTrade said, “The funds will used to further expand our services organically and we are also looking at a few acquisitions in the new and used car spaces.”

Temasek is emerging as one of the most aggressive investors since last year. it also invested in Zomato, PolicyBazaar, Manthan and Snapdeal.

Siddharth Talwar, Partner at Lightbox ventures said, “CarTrade is really smart as they think their equity is worth a lot more than what they want to dilute, and cash is available.”

Along with CarWale, CarTrade also gets their two wheeler business BikeWale. Both the companies combined have 10,000 dealers and 2.25 lakh used cars.

The Indian car market is estimated to be of $125 billion.

Umang Kumar, President of CarDekho said, “New cars is done and dusted, but used cars is where a battle royale will take place with multiple large business opportunities in classifieds, dealer services, auctions and peer-to-peer services.”